This month I attended 13th Prague Patchwork Meeting. The event was open three days in a row, from 5th to 7th of April, there were some classes, shops and exhibition. Despite a well-sounding press-release mentioning 5 halls, 6000 sqm, 400 authors and more than 900 quilts, the exhibition itself was really tiny. For the first day, I went through almost an entire exhibition and commercial area in only an hour and a half, and I wasn’t running. You could imagine my astonishment when I found out that there was no more things to see or shops to visit. I couldn’t believe it first.

All the shops and galleries are located in one building

I was genuinely surprised and disappointed how different it was from the glorious European Patchwork Meeting at France last year. There was nothing “worldwide” about Prague Patchwork Meeting, and sadly so, not many visitors also. The good thing was that one can shoot video or pictures without waiting for people to step aside.

Anyway, I enjoyed talking with sales persons of several sewing machine brands (Brother, PFAFF, Bernina, JUKI, etc.), tried sergers and longarm machines for the first time and dreamed a little about buying one of those babes when I grow up.

The most important of all, I’ve managed to meet some talented artists and creative people from different countries: Fritsma Wil, Margit Siposne Cseh, Heike Rosenbaum, Birgit Shuller. That was such an inspiring and precious experience. And of cause, I’ve enjoyed the quilts and artwork. There were some very interesting pieces, which I’ll show you later.

And at last, a couple of words about the commercial area. Prices in shops of were sometimes four times higher than usual. And the most unfortunately, the quality of majority of fabrics and products presented was not that high. Despite my determination to treat myself with nice new fabrics I haven’t found anything of an interest and with a reasonable price and left PPM emptyhanded.

Patchwork meetings are always interesting and useful experience. If you happen to be in Prague during the next Prague Patchwork Meetings, you may consider attending the exhibition, but you might be quite disappointed if you would cross half of the Europe just for visiting it (as I did) and I most heartily advise against it. Sadly, there was not much to see and I won’t be returning there the next year for sure.

Please forgive me if this is not what you expected, my dear friends. But I feel that I should give my true opinion here and I admit, that it may be subjective. I don’t want to scare anybody from visiting such events, I just suggest to make your research first to save you disappointment.

Yours truly,

Jo